'Murray mania' serves up pressure

'Tiger Tim' may be absent, but his legions of fans have not deserted 'Henman Hill'. The moans and groans still hang on every shot. The splash of white chalk can raise the roof or dampen the spirit in equal measure. The twang of the net cord has the innate ability to set hearts racing.

Nothing gets nerves jangling more than a Great Brit Hope at Wimbledon. After a swift renaming, 'Murray Mound' now plays host to the denizens of SW19 who pray Centre Court will, in turn, house their favourite Scotsman when the final drama unfolds next Sunday afternoon.

Jeremy Bates knows all about the burden of expectation that weighs heavily on British players at the All-England Club. The former British No1 carried the hopes of home fans in the late 1980s and early 1990s as he battled the world's top players at one of sport's most esteemed events. But it's not just the fans that add to the pressure, he says. The media frenzy also plays its part.

"The media approach to things is so different to other tournaments," explains Bates. "You are made aware that during 12 months of the year you're surrounded by the same core of main-stream journalists who do the tennis circuit, but then all of a sudden during Wimbledon it multiplies by about five.

"You end up dealing with all sorts of people, who don't necessarily know the sport too well but have an angle on it anyway. And they add to the huge amount of cynicism around now. I was listening to people joking on the radio about Tim Henman having retired a year ago yet still being ranked No6 in the country, because his points from last year's Wimbledon haven't dropped off yet.

"And that generates this negative feeling before play has even started, which I don't think happens in any other sport we pursue. That sort of stuff doesn't help our cause. A lot of the other players find it quite amusing how the British players are treated over the course of the tournament."

The problem was perfectly illustrated in 2002. Tim Henman had successfully negotiated a straight-sets victory against Jean-Francois Bachelot to find himself in the second round without top seeds Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Marit Safin, who had all been beaten in their first matches. The front cover of a national daily newspaper read: "No Pressure, Timbo, But If You Choke Now, We'll Never Forgive You."

"Tim was obviously the first person to walk into the locker room and saw it splashed right across the page," recalls Bates. "And this was only the first Wednesday of the first week. When you talk to some of the foreign guys in the changing room they can't believe some of the stuff that's been written, seen and heard in the papers about the British players.

"So you lived and died by how you did at Wimbledon and nothing else. It was the only benchmark there was. I had people come up to me sometimes and say 'what do you do the rest of the year?' but that is how it was at the time."

Henman, and then Greg Rusedski, led a resurgence in British tennis at the end of the nineties and into the new millennium, occupying substantial column inches in newspapers and magazines to help raise the sport's profile as Sky broadcast more events than ever before.

Its growing popularity, aided by Henman's four semi-final appearances between 1998 and 2002, cemented the patriotism Bates experienced during his 16-year stint at Wimbledon, none more so than his two gripping fourth round matches with Guy Forget in 1992 and 1994. The 1987 mixed doubles champion believes it's important to use that energy from the crowd to build momentum, but admits it has an adverse effect at times.

"People are very supportive of the British players and when it gets pretty tight on the court that can make a huge difference," he says. "You can definitely use it if you're playing well and when it counts is if the match is close and people really get into it.

"But it doesn't count for anything if you're not winning and playing well. You then end up with all the groans and moans and it can be equally disruptive. It can affect you subconsciously in that you can't get the feel, you can't settle down and relax and play as well as you want to.

"However, if you're a professional sportsman you should be used to adversity and you're there because you want to be there. You want to deal with those issues and you can, so it shouldn't be difficult to focus on it.

"Players want to play on the big stage, play on TV and in front of the fans so, if you don't like that sort of stuff, you shouldn't be in the sport. Although there is pressure, the whole thing about professional sport is you thrive under pressure and the ones who deal with that are the ones that perform the best and are the most successful."

That strain has fallen on Andy Murray this week, as he attempts to become the first British male to win Wimbledon since Fred Perry held aloft the Championship trophy in 1936. Ranked 11th in the world, the Scot is the only British male singles player with a ranking among the top 100. Effectively, he is their only hope.

Thursday's impressive third round demolition of Xavier Malisse has set up a fourth round tie against Tommy Haas this afternoon, the former world No2 that Murray has played just twice, winning once. But Bates, his former Davis Cup captain, feels Murray is in mint condition to deal with the outside pressures of 'Andymonium' and focus solely on playing tennis.

"The one thing about Andy is he's very much his own man and he makes his own decisions," says Bates. "He loves a challenge; he likes to test himself against the best and he's a very good match player.

"He definitely has the ability to win a Grand Slam at some stage. I'm not sure if he's ready to win Wimbledon this year – I don't think it's his best opportunity as he's better on hardcourts – but he's not phased by playing on Centre Court. He's not phased by Wimbledon at all; he's very mentally sound from that point of view."

Consistency, however, has long been his Achilles heel. If the 21-year-old dispatches Haas today and, presumably, eighth-seed Richard Gasquet in the fourth round, he sets up a tantalising quarter-final match against French Open champion Rafael Nadal. "I think he's someone who'll have brilliant weeks where it all slots into place and then have a few weeks where he's a little below his best," explains Bates. "You look at the top three [Roger Federer, Nadal and Novak Djokovic] and they're all consistent, and then you look at Andy who hasn't quite found that yet, even though he's still won five tournaments this year.

"Getting through to win seven matches over two weeks is tough, but he's already beaten Federer a couple of times and pushed Nadal very, very close. If he gets to the quarter-final I think – although Andy will have to be very impressive to beat him – Nadal will be a little fearful of that."

And that vibrant, vocal home support may yet still go into overdrive. The Great Brit Hope could write a new chapter in British tennis history.